Valelio Vask
Known Information Previous life A native of Cole, Valelio (Val to friends and allies) grew up generally unsupervised in seedy dockside taverns. His parents were desperate alcoholics, frequently in debt, and the boy's natural curiosity coupled with a lack of parental oversight led to mischief more oft than not. The gambling table was his classroom, and he learned his numbers well, though the only letters he knows with certainty even as an adult are A, K, Q, and J. At the tender age of eight, his parents forced him to take work cleaning ships in the harbor to fund their alcohol and gambling addictions. He took cleaning jobs grudgingly until his need for attention and approval led him into the hands of a local crime syndicate who was quite willing to act as his surrogate family as long as he proved himself profitable. It wasn't a real family, of course. No love was offered. But Valelio had no frame of reference, no way to understand what he was missing. He spent his preteen years stealing and killing with people he called brothers and sisters. When he succeeded in an assigned task, the syndicate gave him money and encouragement. When he failed, he was whipped and threatened with excommunication and worse. He rarely failed. By the age of fifteen he was working for several big-name underbosses from a small handful of (sometimes competing) syndicates. He was known to be effective and efficient, if sometimes a bit unhinged. He frequently took on jobs that other associates considered too dangerous or difficult, and became unusually well-to-do for someone of his rank as a result. While he took most all work any syndicate would offer him, he most enjoyed piracy jobs that saw him out to sea. Sailing, even for the purpose of piracy, called him and calmed him. It gave him some measure of the order and stability that was consistently lacking through his tumultuous young life. He found it peaceful, even when bloody. Whether fighting or singing, he never felt he could perform anything quite as effectively as when he was aboard, and the companions with whom he forged relationships on sea voyages were his nearest and most cherished. Through his twenties his reputation grew, but his rank did not, and that was by choice. Valelio valued his freedom and agency. He turned down advancement in syndicates for fear of the burden of leadership. He didn't want to negotiate with bosses, make political alliances, or engineer trade schemes. And he abhorred slavery, a trade in which several Colish syndicates engaged. He wanted to sail. He wanted to be a pirate. He wanted to get rich quick. He and two close associates, Imogen and Orb, eventually raised enough money to buy a viciously fast sloop, which they painted completely black (including the sails) and named the Nightingale. Young and headstrong, they turned their new vessel indiscriminately on merchant ships in and around Cole's waters, in utter defiance of the syndicates' delicate systems of organized piracy (to which these upstarts owed every last copper in their purses). They exploited the syndicates' favored piracy routes, even attacking syndicate ships, for almost a full three years before assassins infiltrated their crew and made a coordinated attempt on the trio's lives. It failed, but the group were compelled to leave Cole. They made for Edge, the home territory of the associate called Orb. Just five short hours from their destination, there came a rending crash belowdecks. Rocks just below the surface tore out the belly of the Nightingale. The salt sea poured into the vessel, and the crew knew they were stove in through and through. The Nightingale turned on end, her mainmast went overside. Even though Val was stone drunk on straight rum, he swam for hours toward the rugged island called Tear. He could see it. But he couldn't reach it... As a Returned Valelio Vask, along with his two companions Orb and Imogen, Returned in July of 10r, roughly 60 years after drowning. Val is straightforward and cynical. He mocks systems that seek to exert dominance, but doesn't hesitate to serve those systems by selling his skills as a swordsman. He drinks too much, and enjoys singing and playing instruments, most notably a zither that belonged to his father. He has remained close with another Cole with whom he Returned, a fae-blooded named Candle, as well as the Cestrel warrior-bard Fionn Ó Conchobhair, who bought Valelio a drink and offered him information and companionship on the evening of the pirate's Return. On his second night in Port Frey, Val met Sekril Uhsolin in the Golden Kilt, and shortly thereafter he resolved to join the former Nadine legionnaire's infamous Black Company. Wearing a black leather jerkin, simple leather armor, and armed with a pair of blades, one long, one short, Valelio was seen guarding the Nadine diplomat Domni Atius with a small group during the Nadine forces' siege on Port Frey in August, 10r. With the Black Company By the October 10r gathering of Returned in Port Frey, Valelio had fully embraced his role as a ''caporegime ''of Sekril's Black Company, acting as an outspoken representative in full view of the public, recruiting prospective members, and commanding several dozen footsoldiers. It was during this gathering that the Black Company registered with the Western Conclave as an official mercenary guild, and Valelio began carrying a license to hunt bounties. It was also during this gathering that Val committed his first act of piracy as a Returned with two friends and a full complement of Black Company footsoldiers. The group stole a number of smuggling skiffs from the Sorrowful army who were at that time occupied with attacking Port Frey. The boats had been left guarded by just a few dozen men who proved only a minor obstacle. Val lost ten footsoldiers during the operation, a number he and Sekril considered more than acceptable considering the reward it yielded. Status 1 pin (Black Company) Allies * Imogen * Orb * Sekril Uhsolin * Revian * Geist * Thayden Yoshino * Montgomery Gordon * Zeske * Fionn Ó Conchobhair * Candle * Tsetseg * Angri Hildóttir * Sir Leofric Umbrosas * Domni Atius * Rem Pandrego * Brutus * Jah'ko'bi Valharice * Captain Esdeline Dunnelon-Valance * Mr. Wigle * Caliban Sadero * Blackwell Enemies Rumors * He can drink literally anyone in Port Frey under the table and then sing a song to celebrate the victory * I heard that the last fella who crossed that guy got chopped up and fed to the fishes under the harbor. Quotes "I fear I've a drinking problem... There's no drink in my hand." "We all eat, sh*t, and die." Character Inspirations Mugen (Samurai Champloo) Vicious (Cowboy Bebop) Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop) Charlie Kelly (Always Sunny) Chris Moltisanti (The Sopranos) Soundtrack "C.R.E.A.M." - Wu-Tang Clan "Ace of Spades" - Motörhead "Flowers of Bermuda" - Stan Rogers "Iron Swan" - The Sword